System and method for changing the priority of voice mail messages within the recipient&#39;s mailbox

ABSTRACT

A system and method for enabling the sender of electronic mail messages to access a recipient&#39;s mailbox to reprioritize the messages previously sent by the sender. The system searches the recipient&#39;s mailbox for messages sent by the sender and unread by the recipient. An unopened message counter is used to determine the number of unopened messages in the recipient&#39;s mailbox. A message review unit enables the sender to review the unread messages. A message prioritization unit is used to reprioritize the unread messages.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention generally relates to a message prioritization system and,more particularly, to a message prioritization system for changing thepriority of messages in a recipient's mailbox.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Message processing systems have been in widespread use for many years.These systems, such as a voice messaging system, are commonly used asmessage sending, receiving and storing tools. In particular, voicemessaging systems are commonly known as voice mail systems (VMS). Insuch systems, each user is assigned a mailbox wherein messages sent tothe user are saved. The recipient of a message, upon accessing the VMS,may retrieve messages from his or her mailbox. In the past, voice mailsystems had limited capabilities. For example, users of the earliestsystems could only send messages and store messages for later playback.

As technology progressed, advanced functionality was added to the VMS.In particular, present day systems not only store messages, but canforward messages to one or more recipients; message replies can beautomatically sent to the sender; and messages can be attached to othermessages before being sent to their final destination. Even inpresent-day systems, however, messages once received by the recipientare stored chronologically, i.e., in the order received, in therecipient's mailbox. Similarly, the recipient retrieves the messages inthe order in which they were received.

In addition, certain voice mail systems are known to have the ability toassign handling codes to messages. Typically, the handling codes enablea message to be sent to the recipient carrying a special "tag" toindicate to the system that the message requires special handling. Forexample, it is known that messages, before being sent, may be tagged"private" to prevent the recipient from forwarding the message toothers. A message may also be tagged "priority," which causes themessage to jump to the first position in the mailbox, ahead of all theother messages in the recipient's mailbox. This enables urgent messagesto be read first. Other various tags may also be available depending onthe particular manufacturer of the VMS and the implemented features.

However, no known system is available wherein messages may be accessedby the sender after the messages have been sent and stored in therecipient's mailbox. Generally, once the sender has sent a message, thedisposition of the message is out of the sender's control. Certain voicemail systems are known to allow the sender to delete unread messagesfrom the recipient's mailbox, but only while a message is being sent,and before the sender terminates the connection or explicitly commandsthe VMS 90 to send the message.

There are certain situations when the sender may need to change apreviously sent message. In particular, the sender may have providedbackground information regarding a particular issue in a message, butseveral facts may have changed subsequently. In such an instance, thesender may send a subsequent message with updated facts, but may want tomaintain the original message so as to not repeat previously sentinformation.

Unfortunately, during the course of a business day, the priority ofcertain issues may often change, thereby requiring subsequent messagesto be sent to notify the recipient of the changed priorities. As such,excess messages may fill up the recipient's mailbox preventing othersent messages which perhaps change the priority of earlier messages frombeing stored. This can cause the recipient to possibly send out errantreplies based on outdated messages. Because a sender does not haveaccess to the contents of a recipient's mailbox, the sender cannotreorder the messages into a understandable desired order. Therefore, thesender is compelled to send subsequent messages to clarify previouslysent messages

What is needed, therefore, is a system that allows the sender of themessages to reprioritize or reorder unopened messages that are stored inthe recipient's mailbox.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a system and method for enabling thesender of electronic mail messages to access the contents of arecipient's mailbox to reprioritize the messages previously sent by thesender. The system searches the recipient's mailbox for messages sent bythe sender and unread by the recipient. A message counter is used todetermine the number of, if any, unopened messages in the recipient'smailbox. A message review unit enables the sender to replay and reviewthe unread messages sent by the sender in determining which messageshave not yet been read by the recipient. A message prioritization unitis used to reprioritize the unread messages such that the recipient mayaccess them in the order intended by the sender.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other features, objects and advantages of the present invention willbecome readily apparent and understood upon consideration of thefollowing detailed description and attached drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is an overall block diagram of a known voice mail system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the voice mail system in accordance withthe present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of a message header.

FIG. 4. is a flow diagram for reprioritizing messages in accordance withthe present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a voice mail system for enabling asender of one or more messages to reprioritize, i.e., reorder, thesequence of unread messages in a recipient's mailbox that were sent bythe sender. The present invention includes a message counter todetermine the number of, if any, unopened messages in the recipient'smailbox. A message review unit enables the sender to replay and reviewthe unread messages. A message reprioritization unit is used to enablethe sender to reprioritize or reorder the unread messages in therecipient's mailbox.

A known voice mail system (VMS) 90 (FIG. 1) generally includes a mailserver 100 having telephone interfaces 101 and a mass storage device105, such as a hard disk drive, having a controller 106. The mail server100 is typically a microprocessor or microcontroller-based control unitthat controls the operation of the VMS 90. Mailboxes 102 are portions ofspace reserved on the mass storage device 105 for a particular user forstoring messages. Each of the telephone interfaces 101 is connected to atelephone 104. It is to be noted that FIG. 1 is representative of onlyone of many possible voice mail systems and configurations, and istherefore exemplary only.

The telephone interfaces 101 are used to receive voice signals overtelephone lines and to convert them to appropriate digital format forstorage and later retrieval from the mass storage device 105. Inaddition, telephone interfaces 101 also perform functions such as ringdetection, dial signal generation, off-hook detection, etc. Inoperation, control signals from the telephone interfaces 101 aretransmitted to the mass storage controller 106 over a control bus 103and voice signals, which have been converted into a digital signal usingan analog to digital converter, are transmitted to the mass storagedevice 105 over a data bus 107. Typically, the telephone interfaces 101receive voice signals, such as speech, in analog form and receivecontrol signals in the form of dual tone multi frequency (DTMF) tonesgenerated by keypresses on the DTMF numeric keypad (not shown) of thetelephone 104. The mail server 100 responds to the control signals totelephone interfaces 101 and the mass storage controller 106 to identifyvoice signals with selected addresses and stores them on the massstorage device 105 for retrieval at a later time.

Turning to FIG. 2, a block diagram of a message reprioritization systemimplemented in a VMS 90 in accordance with the present invention isillustrated. It should be understood that the present invention is alsoapplicable to E-Mail systems and other electronic message storage andretrieval systems. An important aspect of the invention is the abilityof the sender to reprioritize messages sent by the sender to therecipient even after the messages have been received by the recipientand stored in the recipient's mailbox. As will be discussed in moredetail below, the message prioritization unit 152 in accordance with thepresent invention enables the sender to access the contents of therecipient's mailbox in order to reprioritize messages sent by the senderto the recipient, thus obviating the need for unnecessary additionalmessage generation. In particular, it is known that messages stored in amailbox are stored sequentially. As such, the recipient is able toretrieve messages only in the order that they were received. Thus, amessage sent at a time later than an earlier sent message can beaccessed only after the first message has been reviewed or retrieved bythe recipient. This creates a situation where the recipient may answeror respond to a message via a return message, before realizing that alater sent message may have had an effect on how the recipient shouldhave responded. This results in a follow up message that needs to besent to clear up any confusion. It can be seen that the unnecessary orincorrect messages result in wasted time and message storage space.

In the present system, the mail server 100 further includes, as will bediscussed further below, a message search unit 158, an unopened messagecounter 156, a message review unit 154, a message prioritization unit152 and a message deletion unit 157, all of which are interconnected bydata bus 103 to hard drive controller 106. Data bus 103 is used totransmit command messages between the various components. The messagesearch unit 158, unopened message counter 156, message review unit 154,message prioritization unit 152 and message deletion unit 157 may eachbe implemented as software running on a microprocessor or controller(not shown).

The mail server 100 includes a general purpose microcontroller orcentral processing unit (not shown) which is the primary controller forthe VMS 90 and is responsible for, among other things, controlling allof the messaging functions of the VMS 90, including enabling messages tobe recorded, sending the messages to their proper destinations andenabling playback of the messages once they are retrieved. The messagesearch unit 158 is used for locating unopened messages and accesses therecipient's mailbox to determine whether any unopened messages from thesender to the recipient exist. The unopened message counter 156 countsthe number of unopened messages found by the message search unit 158 andsends a signal to the sender indicating the number of unread messagesfrom the sender to the recipient that are stored in the recipient'smailbox. Upon determining the number of unopened messages, the messagereview unit 154 enables the sender to review the unopened messages inthe recipient's mailbox. During or after completion of the messagereview, the message prioritization unit 152 enables messages in therecipient's mailbox to be reprioritized by the sender. The system of thepresent invention may be easily adapted for implementation in mostE-Mail and Voice Mail type systems.

For security reasons, the system of the present invention is configuredsuch that the sender may access only his or her own messages that havebeen stored unread in the recipient's mailbox. This is enforced by theVMS 90 at the time the sender logs on using commonly known and usedidentification techniques. In particular, during user log in, the VMS 90checks the electronic identification of the telephone from which thecall is being placed or requires the caller to enter the extension thatthe caller registered under. The VMS 90 then verifies the identity ofthe person logging into the system by requiring the user to enter asecurity or identification password associated with the user'sextension. The code is entered via the DTMF keypad of the telephone. Themail server 100 then cross-references the user entered code with anexisting list stored in a memory 91 the VMS 90 that contains a list ofall authorized users and their respective passwords. If a match isfound, the system enables the user to gain further access to thefunctions of the VMS 90. If no match is found, the VMS 90 denies furtheraccess to the system.

As shown in FIG. 3, voice mail messages typically have electronic headerinformation for uniquely identifying each message on the VMS. Althoughthe format of such information may vary from system to system, basicheader information includes the sender's extension, the date and timethe message was sent and the status of the message, along with anyspecial handling code. Therefore, in the present invention, when thesender is accessing a message in the recipient's mailbox, the mailserver compares the header information of the message or messages in therecipient's mailbox to the sender login identification informationentered by the sender, to determine whether the user was indeed thesender of the messages. Upon verification that the sender sent themessage, the sender, after gaining access to the messages in recipient'smailbox, will be allowed by the system to have access to only thosemessages carrying the sender's electronic identification header.

Referring once again to FIG. 2, after the sender has gained initialentry into the VMS 90, as described above, the system of the presentinvention is activated initially by the sender of a message pressing apredetermined series of buttons on the DTMF keypad of the touch tonetelephone 104. A DTMF decoder 155 in the telephone interface 101 decodesthe tones and transmits a signal for use by the message search unit 158instructing it to access the portion of the disk 105 containing therecipient's mailbox to determine whether any unopened messages from thesender are stored in the recipient's mailbox 102.

For example, the sender, after logging in, may press star (*) 99 on theDTMF keypad followed by a numerical combination, to enable the messageprioritization system. The sender then keys in the extension number ofthe recipient. The tones generated by the DTMF keypad are then decodedby the DTMF decoder 155 in the telephone interface 101. The telephoneinterface 101, upon decoding the tones, sends a signal to the mailserver 100, indicating that the sender requires access to messages sentby the sender to the recipient that are unread and stored in therecipient's mailbox.

In particular, the mail server 100 sends a signal to the mass storagedevice 105 to allow read access to the portions of the mass storagedevice 105 containing the recipient's unread mail. The message searchunit 158, upon -accessing the recipient's mailbox, scans the headerinformation of each message in search of the sender's extension in orderto determine whether any messages from the sender are present within therecipient's mailbox. The message search unit 158 also scans the statusinformation in the message header (FIG. 3) to determine whether themessage has been read. Upon finding an unread message, the messagesearch unit 158 sends a signal to the unopened message counter 156. Foreach unopened message sent by the sender that the message search unit158 finds, a signal is sent to the unopened message counter 156.

The unopened message counter 156 receives the signal from the messagesearch unit 158 and increments an internal counter 159 to count eachunread mail message in the recipients mailbox that was sent by thesender. The above process is repeated for each such mail message untilall the unread messages sent by the sender are counted. The unopenedmessage counter 156 then sends a signal to the mail server 100indicating the number of unopened messages that are located within therecipient's mailbox. The mail server 100 may then generate a voicesynthesized message informing the sender of the number of unreadmessages sent by the sender that are unread by the recipient and storedin the recipient's mailbox. The number of unopened messages is suppliedto the sender mainly as a matter of convenience for helping the senderto determine whether the prioritization process should proceed. Forexample, if the system indicates that only one unopened message from thesender exists in the recipient's mailbox, the prioritization process isnot necessary. On the other hand, if the system indicates numerousunread messages, the sender may feel that message review is necessary toremind himself of the contents of the messages before actuallyreprioritizing the messages.

Upon determining the number of unopened messages, the message reviewunit 154 may be used by the sender to review the unopened messages inthe recipient's mailbox. In particular, after the sender has gainedaccess to recipient's mailbox, the sender can transmit a signal tomessage review unit 154 for enabling the messages to be reviewed. Thereview command messages are also sent using predetermined DTMF keypadkeypresses. For example, the sender may press the star key (*) followedby a predetermined digit, such as 7, to activate the review process. Themail server 100, upon receiving such a signal, will then play the firststored message sent by the sender. After reviewing the message, thesender can then use the DTMF keypad to step through the other messagessent by the sender. In particular, the star key (*) may be used to readmessages earlier in the list and the pound sign (#) may be used to readmessages later in the list.

After completion of message review, the message prioritization unit 152enables messages in the recipient mailbox to be reprioritized by thesender or the message deletion unit 157 may be used to delete one ormore messages. Therefore, after the sender has reviewed one or more ofthe stored messages, the sender may feel the need for the order of themessages to be reprioritized, or to even delete certain messages.

The message deletion unit 157 enables the sender to delete one or moremessages sent by the sender, as mentioned above, by pressing theappropriate sequence of keys on the DTMF pad on the telephone 104. Inparticular, as each message is reviewed, the sender may use the DTMFkeypad to enter deletion commands. For example, the, sender, uponreviewing each message may feel that a particular message is no longernecessary and should be deleted. By keying the appropriate commands onthe DTMF keypad, such as 12, the sender can select the second reviewedmessage for deletion. After selecting the message, the sender can thenpress the appropriate DTMF key sequence, such as #3, to delete themessage. The system is designed to prevent accidental message deletion.In particular, confirmation of the deletion command is requested beforethe message is deleted from the recipient's mailbox.

The message prioritization unit 152 enables the sender to reprioritizeor reorder any messages sent by the sender, as mentioned above, bypressing appropriate numbers on the DTMF keypad. In particular, as eachmessage is viewed, the sender may use the DTMF keypad to enterreprioritization commands. For example, the sender, upon reviewing firstand second stored messages, may feel that the second message should beheard by the recipient first. By keying the appropriate commands on theDTMF keypad, such as 12, the sender can select the second reviewedmessage for moving. After selecting the message, the sender can thenpress the appropriate DTMF key, such as #, to shift the message down,effectively changing the first stored message into the second storedmessage thereby enabling the originally second message to be reviewedfirst by the recipient. Similarly, for example, in a mailbox containingfive messages from the sender, the sender can review the messages andselect the fourth message to be reprioritized by pressing *4 for themessage number to be reviewed and pressing 14 to select the message forreprioritization. The sender then presses the appropriate keys to movethe message up or down within the list of messages. For example, thesender can press the # key to move the message down a single place foreach keypress, or press * to move the message up a single place. Thissequence can be repeated numerous times to move one or more messages upor down several places. The sender may then press *0 to indicate to thesystem that the sender is ready to exit the system. Thus, when therecipient accesses his mailbox, the system will replay the messages inthe order the sender feels is appropriate. It should be noted that thecommand numbers and keystrokes described above are exemplary only andmay vary with each implementation.

Referring to FIG. 4, a flow diagram is shown depicting a messagereprioritization routine for reprioritizing messages in a recipient'smailbox. In step 200, the sender prepares to access the voice mailsystem 90. In step 202, the sender presses the correct sequence of keyson the touch tone keypad and sends a message to recipient's mailbox. Thesystem, upon detecting the sent message, instructs the message searchunit 158, which may be implemented as a software program, to search therecipient's mailbox for unopened messages sent by the sender. If nounopened messages are found in step 204, the mail server automaticallyexits the reprioritization routine in step 206. It is to be noted thatthe sender has the option of exiting the reprioritization routine at anytime if so desired. Upon finding one or more unopened messages in step204, the unopened message counter 156 will return a message to thesender indicating the number of unopened messages in the mailbox in step208.

In step 210, the message review unit 154, which may also be a softwareprogram, is called by the sender to review the contents of the unopenedmessages. The sender may, in step 211, determine whether the messagedeletion unit 157, which may be a software program, needs to be calledto delete one or more messages. If the message is to be deleted, asignal is sent in step 213 indicating that the selected message is to bedeleted. The system then proceeds to step 215 wherein the sender mayindicate if the deletion process is complete. If the sender desires tocontinue deletion, the system will return to the previous step. Oncedeletion is completed, or if the user desires no messages to be deleted,the system will exit the deletion system and move on to reprioritizationstep 212. The sender may decide in step 212 whether the messages needsto be reprioritized. If reprioritization is not required or necessary,the system exits the reprioritization process in step 206. Ifprioritization is needed, the sender in step 214 presses the appropriateDTMF touch tone key to generate a message to activate the messageprioritization unit 152, which may also be a software program. Thesystem upon receiving the message will move the appropriate messages upor down in the queue of messages sent by the sender. Thus, for example,later sent message may be saved higher in the queue than an earlier sentmessage, thereby causing the recipient to review the later sent messagefirst. The system then proceeds to step 216 wherein the sender mayindicate if the reprioritization process is complete. If the senderdesires to continue reprioritization, the system will return to theprevious step. Once reprioritization is complete, the system will exitthe reprioritization system in step 206. It is to be noted that thepresent invention is not limited to solely changing the priority of mailmessages. It is well within the scope of the system to enable the senderof messages to delete unnecessary unread messages in the recipient'smailbox. Furthermore, the sender may also consolidate his or hermessages, that were sent by the sender, such that during playback by therecipient, all the messages sent by the sender will be played in orderwithout interruption from other saved messages.

It is to be understood that the present invention is a powerful tool forenabling the sender of a message to access and manipulate his or her ownearlier sent messages in a recipient's mailbox. It is left to the VMSadministrator or system designer to enable and disable features asneeded.

Obviously, many modifications and variations of the present inventionare possible in light of the above teachings. Thus, it is to beunderstood that, within the scope of the amended claims, the inventionmay be practiced otherwise than as specifically described above.

What is claimed is:
 1. A message priority reordering system in anelectronic message processing system for enabling the sender of at leastone message to reorder the priority of the messages in a predeterminedrecipient's mailbox, comprising:a recipient search unit configured tosearch the predetermined mailbox for at least one unopened mail message;a message review unit configured to enable access by said sender to thepredetermined mailbox for reviewing said at least one unopened mailmessage; and a message prioritization unit configured to allow saidsender to reorder said at least one unopened mail message.
 2. Themessage priority reordering system of claim 1, wherein said messages arevoice mail messages.
 3. The message priority reordering system of claim1, wherein said messages are electronic mail messages.
 4. A messagepriority reordering system in an electronic message processing systemfor enabling the sender of at least one message to reorder the priorityof the messages in a predetermined recipient's mailbox, comprising:arecipient search unit configured to search the predetermined mailbox forat least one unopened mail message; a message review unit configured toenable access by said sender to the predetermined mailbox for reviewingsaid at least one unopened mail message; a message prioritization unitconfigured to allow said sender to reorder said at least one unopenedmail message; and an unopened message counter configured to count thenumber of said at least one unopened mail message.
 5. A message priorityreordering system for enabling a message sender to reorder unreadmessages that were sent by the sender in a recipient's mailbox,comprising:means for determining whether the mailbox contains unreadmessages sent by the sender; means responsive to said determining meansfor enabling access to said recipient's electronic mailbox; and meansresponsive to determining means for enabling the message sender toreorder said unread messages.
 6. A message priority reordering systemfor enabling a message sender to reorder unread messages that were sentby the sender in a recipient's mailbox, comprising:means for determiningwhether the mailbox contains unread messages sent by the sender; meansresponsive to said determining means for enabling access to saidrecipient's electronic mailbox; means responsive to said determiningmeans for enabling the message sender to reorder said unread messages;and means for determining the number of unread messages in the mailbox.7. The message priority reordering system of claim 6, wherein therecipient's mailbox is configured to store electronic mail messages andvoice mail messages.
 8. The message priority reordering system of claim6, further including means for enabling only the sending of said unreadmessages to access said electronic mailbox.
 9. A method for enabling thesender of electronic messages to reprioritize unread messages sent bythe sender and stored in the recipient's mailbox, comprising:searchingthe recipient's mailbox for unread messages; enabling the sender toobtain access to the recipient's mailbox if unread messages are found;and allowing the sender to reorder said unread messages.
 10. The methodof claim 9, further including verifying that only the sender of themessage is authorized to reprioritize unread messages in the recipient'smailbox.
 11. An electronic message processing system for enabling asender to send messages to a recipient, comprising:a communicationsdevice configured to enable the sender to send messages to therecipient; a mailbox configured to hold the messages sent by the senderto the recipient; a message review unit configured to enable the senderof the messages to access the recipient's mailbox for reviewing mailmessages sent by the sender and reorder said mail messages.
 12. Anelectronic message processing system for enabling messages to be sent bya sender to a recipient, comprising:a communications device configuredto enable the sender to send the messages to the recipient; a mailboxconfigured to hold the messages sent by the sender to the recipient; amessage prioritization unit configured to enable the sender of themessages to reorder the messages stored in said mailbox to alter thesequence in which messages are reviewed by the recipient.
 13. Anelectronic message processing system for enabling a sender to sendmessages to a recipient, comprising:a communications device configuredto enable the sender to send messages to the recipient; a mailboxconfigured to hold the messages sent by the sender to the recipient; amessage review unit configured to enable the sender of the messages toaccess the recipient's mailbox for reviewing the contents of said mailmessages sent by the sender and reorder said mail messages.
 14. Anelectronic message processing system for enabling a sender to sendmessages to a recipient, comprising:a communications device configuredto enable the sender to send messages to the recipient; a mailboxconfigured to hold the messages sent by the sender to the recipient; amessage search unit configured to enable the sender of the messages toaccess the recipient's mailbox for determining whether any unopenedmessages are stored in the recipient's mailbox; and a messageprioritization unit configured to allow said sender to reorder saidunopened messages.
 15. An electronic message processing system forenabling a sender to send messages to a recipient, comprising:acommunications device configured to enable the sender to send messagesto the recipient; a mailbox configured to hold the messages sent by thesender to the recipient; a message counting unit configured to determinethe number of mail messages in said mailbox that were sent by the senderthat are unread by the recipient.
 16. An electronic message processingsystem for enabling a sender to send messages to a recipient,comprising:a communications device configured to enable the sender tosend messages to the recipient; a mailbox configured to hold themessages sent by the sender to the recipient; a message review unitconfigured to enable the sender of the messages to access therecipient's mailbox for reviewing mail messages sent by the sender andreordering said mail messages.
 17. An electronic message processingsystem for enabling a sender to send messages to a recipient,comprising:a communications device configured to enable the sender tosend messages to the recipient; a mailbox configured to hold themessages sent by the sender to the recipient; a message deletion unitconfigured to enable the sender of the messages to access therecipient's mailbox to reorder and to delete any unopened messages thatare stored in the recipient's mailbox that were sent by the sender.